The Nationals try to avoid a series sweep tonight at the hands of the Mets.

Livan Hernandez has started 58 games Washington, D.C., more than any other pitcher since baseball returned in 2005, and few men who have toed the rubber at either RFK Stadium or Nationals Park have been as beloved as the big right-hander. Tonight, Livo takes the mound under different circumstances, the news of his possible involvement in a federal money laundering case having gone mainstream yesterday.

If this was another town, or if this was another pitcher, the crowd response tonight might not be very pleasant. I have a hunch, though, that Hernandez will be greeted warmly as always when he emerges from the dugout shortly before 7:05 p.m. We shall see.

In other news, Ian Desmond has returned from paternity leave and has been added back to the roster. The Nationals optioned outfielder Roger Bernadina back to Class AAA Syracuse to make room for Desmond, who will start at shortstop tonight and bat sixth.

Is Rizzo or Riggleman responsible for those kind of decisions? Let's see, the Nats have a paid pinch hitter that won't swing at any pitch on the bench, yet they will send down a younger (much younger) player that is willing to swing and get hits. I don't understand the thinking here.

Anonymous 4:58-A fourth outfielder who would get plenty of ABs. And there's an argument that he's more deserving of the starting CF job than Ankiel, who's currently hitting .212/.295./.282, ain't getting any younger, and has been utterly useless at the plate since shortly after he was exposes as an HGH user at the end of the 2007 season. The dropoff after his 2008 season is severe. He's obviously not the answer for the Nats at CF down the road; let's see if Bernadina can be. At least that's the argument.

Anonymous said… It's called options and the desire to have the younger guy get regular playing time. A pinch hit here or there would stifle Bernadina's talent. Get over yourself. April 28, 2011 4:58 PM This is why I usually don't post on any blog. I ask a question and am told to get over myself.And who cares if it's called options? I just want the best team that can be fielded out there. And it's not happening.

Pretty late in the day for me not to have posted my "Stairs My Go" post. Seriously — does anyone want to guess 0 for how many he goes before he understands that he needs to retire? I would love to have seen Bernie get more of a chance.

I feel kind of bad for Stairs, and I'm certainly not angry with him. If I were in his shoes and there was a front office in baseball that was stupid enough to pay me good money to do nothing but pinch-hit at the age of 43, I'd take their money too. The villain here, as much as I hate to say it, is Mike Rizzo. Signing him was such a terrible decision that it makes me question him, despite what appear to be many other good decisions since he took over. I appreciate that he signed mediocre to bad guys like Hairston, Ankiel and Cora to fill out the major league roster so the young guys could continue to play every day in the minors, but I can't understand the Stairs signing. I remember when we all first heard the news- everyone thought we were bringing him into the organization to be a minor league hitting instructor or something.

Stairs has to go, and he will. Maybe they’re hoping he’ll get a home run or at least a multi-base RBI hit and then “retire” the next day, so his last major-league AB won’t be another strikeout in an 0-fer season. But one way or the other, he will go, and whether it's tomorrow or a month from now really won't matter that much.

Anonymous said… It's called options and the desire to have the younger guy get regular playing time. A pinch hit here or there would stifle Bernadina's talent. Get over yourself. April 28, 2011 4:58 PM __________________________________You have the personality of a dish rag and you know very little.

Yeah, get over yourself. Rizzo knows what he is doing. And he has high expectations for Bernadina and he is stating that Bernadina must meet them to be on this team. The facts are Bernadina had a bad late summer slump last year and then this year got bulked up and had a bad spring. And from what some commentators posted, he had bad at bats where he was always trying to pull the ball. Also, the Nationals really dislike him in center. They do not like his glove there. So in essence, he would pull MM out of games and not Ankiel. And also, Ankiel and Bernadina are both lefties. There is no natural platoon. Bernadina is not the right answer in center, from a defensive point of view. Offensively, his approach has regressed and would be a negative over MM (at least compared to spring training statistics). And you aren't going to put him in over Werth, who also isn't batting that well either. And finally, if you believe Bernadina truly is a great player to be, then you want him getting regular at bats to improve, not sitting on the pine as some 4th outfielder. And finally, Bernadina is hitting around .288 in AAA? That's not exactly lighting AAA on fire.

For those coming up with excuses … why Ankiel? Why Stairs? Why Cora? Why Gaudin? Why Hairston? When clearly they are far worse than who they replaced?And last night instead of double-switching Morse out late, he double switches him early … for who? Bernadina. He goes 2 for 2? But why NOT for Nix who is hitting? Better? Why not double switch the non-hitting Ankiel out for Bernadina? So Ankiel can get it going … ??? He will NEVER get it going!? Neither will Gaudin … and now we finally get Henry Rodriguez on board. This is Giggleman's Isle where winning is way down on the priority list. Who's starting at catcher tonight? The hot hitting (one of the few) Ramos? A guy they should be looking at as a long-term solution? Or tonight's 40 year old catcher … is this celebrity golf? Dancing with the Stars? Riggleman's cronyism when making lineups and double switches sure reminds me of Dancing with the Stars judge? Hey he could be Bob Denver and then we could all be on Giggleman's Isle!

Yeah I might be a dishrag and know nothing about baseball, but what I do know is that Bernadina is no second coming of the second coming. He's a flawed player, much like Mike Morse, Rick Ankiel, Hariston , Cora, Stairs, et. al. To pretend that magically everything will improve when he is up is crazy talk. Ankiel won the position in ST batting the Mendoza line. What does that say about Bernadina? When Bernadina starts showing his flaws will you be the first person to drum him down to Syracuse????The issue is the lack of Zim not Bernadina. Last I checked Zim is a great player. His bat is sorely missed. And a prime reason the offense is awful. And it's over-exposing the bench. And for some of you its called the bench because the guys who sit there are not necessarily good enough to play every day. Even the Yankees got some suspect bench players.

Mark Zuckerman's Twitter… Ryan Zimmerman played catch for only a few minutes today. #Nats aren't giving timetable but sure looks like he won't be back for awhile.1 hour ago This is the biggest story of the year so far. It is could be worse than losing Stephen Strasburg last year and he only pitched 1 out of 5 days. If the team goes without Zim for 33 games or more it is like a full season in pitcher time (kind of like converting dog years). I remember someone posting during Spring Training that this was going to happen with Zim the way he left last season and had a similar injury at the beginning of Spring Training.When you lose the Face of the Franchise and your backup is a journeyman batting his weight, you are going to suffer as a team. This wasn't an injury like Strasburg's TJ, this was an injury of not being in proper condition and falls on the Nats coaching staff after last years injury. Bowden called his players inventory. Inventory is a team's asset. Zim is the most important asset the team has. The team didn't protect its asset.

Even the Yankees got some suspect bench players.Justin Maxwell in AAA batting around the Mendoza line. Not on the big club. The Yankees aren't trying to claim he could be the next Mickey Mantle as the Nats seemed to alway claim about Maxwell.AND Ankiel DID NOT win the CF job. Not even close. He was given the job the day he signed. Just ask any of the beat reporters because that's the "skinny" that came down. Same with Hairston, Cora and Stairs.Who is hitting the cover off the ball right now for the Nats … when as you say they sorely miss Zimmerman? And is he playing? No. Wilson Ramos sits so that Pudge can add another sub-Mendoza bat to an already beleaguered lineup. Here on Giggleman's Isle!!!

Anonymous said… Yeah I might be a dishrag and know nothing about baseball, but what I do know is that Bernadina is no second coming of the second coming. He's a flawed player, much like Mike Morse, Rick Ankiel, Hariston , Cora, Stairs, et. al._________________________No arguement with that. Still would take Bernadina on my bench over Stairs. Didn't last night prove anything? Rizzo has lost his bleeping mind. I also hope Stairs hits a HR night and I still wouldn't change my mind because The Sharkadina can hit HRs too and play defense and run the bases.

Since I'm already here, I'll also address why Ankiel is always batting second since that is another amazing line of discussion. Because clearly every brilliant baseball mind would never bat Ankiel second. It must be Riggleman trying to "get Ankiel going" or bending over for his vets. Yeah it must be that reason or maybe its because 2nd is the classic position that the player sees a lot of fastballs. Why? Because pitchers do not want to put men on base in front of the better players in the 3-4-5 positions and they throw fastballs for contact outs. So what does that have to do with Ankiel? Well anyone who even watches a little bit of Ankiel can see he does not like the breaking balls much. But he likes the fastball. So get this, maybe Riggleman is using a strategy to get Ankiel have a higher percentage of fastballs rather than more breaking balls further down in the lineup. No. That's crazy talk. On this board Riggleman is some clueless moron who likes vets and double switching Mike Morse too much.

“We’ll see when we get to that bridge,” Zimmerman said. “I’m sure they’ll want me to do some sort of rehab thing. But I think the goal is to kind of get back here as quick as I can. If I can get back and play here, I’ll take my chances learning how to hit again here and help these guys out.”__________________________________Ryan Zimmerman, get a clue on your life. You have been coddled most of your life and you don't live in reality, "we" the people that buy season's tickets are paying a big part of your $9,000,000 you are taking for not working. If I can't work I get fired from my job and lose my home.I get an email yesterday for your ziMS event. Glad your people are sending out for money for that too.Also glad while the team was on a road trip that you had time to hang with Charlie Sheen, Alex Ovechkin, and Washington's finest!

Well anyone who even watches a little bit of Ankiel can see he does not like the breaking balls much. But he likes the fastball.Uhhmm NEWSFLASH Dishrag? Yeah I think you are right you must not know much about baseball. First the idea for a #2 guy is to get on base. Not rip at every fastball Get on base have an high OBP. This is particularly and acutely important since the Nats decided to have Desmond lead-off (complete failure period dude!) and now they have a rookie? In the lead off spot? You can't rely on Espinosa to be a great lead off hitter particularly in his first year. So … Who THE F&&K is going to get on base for the #3 guy Werth? One of your top offensive players … so-called? Dude that's why they initially put Werth batting second. Ankiel is a hit-less close-to-Mendoza wonder who has a little bit of pop unlike Guzman he does walk but still a .300 OBP consistently historically? Batting second?That DOES mean that either Riggleman is practicing blatant cronyism or he is a moron. I suspect both.

@Giggleman, other than Chavez and Jones, do you know any of these guys? Eric Chavez, Gustavo Molina, Eduardo Nunez, Andrew Jones.Gustavo Moilina's bat is non-existent. Eduardo Nunez is a good fielding bad hitting SS. Eric Chavez had a couple bad seasons before doing well on the Yankees (called re-tread). And Andrew Jones is clearly not the player he used to be. Versus the Nats with Cora, Hariston, Stairs, I-Rod. I see more 'names' on this team.

Ok anon@6:17. Who would you bat 2nd from this line-up? Who has that great OBP that you are looking for? Desi? Nope .253 OBP this year. Espi? Nope, he's the lead-off? Werth? Nope, who's batting 3rd without Zim? LaRoche? He's got a .323 OBP but then who bats clean-up? Any of the other cast of hitters? Hariston (OBP .302), Cora, I-Rod, MM (.297 SLG)? All of them, with their great OBP that are currently on this team? Who? Oh, maybe Ankiel, his OBP is .295, close to Hariston the only other answer. AND he can get to see more fastballs. Yeah that Riggleman, some dope.

It is kind of interesting how Rizzo is mostly getting a pass here, while Riggleman gets ripped. When I think that the reality is that Riggleman is at least trying to win, and Rizzo is mostly punting on the season. I am not the biggest Riggleman guy and share some of the criticisms of him that I see here, but I do think that he is trying to win.I understand the options game, but I also understand that Rizzo is overplaying it by protecting marginal guys like Gaudin, Slaten, Stairs and Coffey on the hope that they turn it around enough to become trade chips for a C- prospect. How many games do we have to give up on to see if that happens? In the interim, Riggleman is stuck with a 3.5 person bullpen. If the Nats get hot, he'll probably kill Clip and Storen trying to win those games. OK, if we had super talented 20 yr olds that clearly weren't ready for MLB, I could see not putting our best players out there right now, and waiting for them to develop. But Balestar, HRod, Kimball – these are 25+yr olds who are only down in Syr because of options, not for the need for more development (I know HRod just got called up). Roger Bernadina is going on 27 with over 1500 ABs in the minors. Do we think that he becomes Colby Rasmus with regular playing time in the minors? Yet does anyone think that Matt Stairs is going to contribute more to the Nats than Bernadina right now? I am not asking for Bryce Harper, Derek Norris, Sammy Solis and Robbie Ray to be called up. But these other guys have to be better than what we are seeing, they have very little left to prove in the minors and they should be here. How much difference would any of this make? Who knows, but it can't be worse and it does seem like it would feel a little better if it felt like the FO was trying, at least.It is crazy to see the Zimm bashing, though.

I am listening to Phil Wood, another genius. According to Phil, they sent Bernadina down so he can be an everyday player next year. I like Roger and all but he is not going to be an everyday player on a good team. He is a .240 guy which is fine on a bench as he has other tools —speed and defense.There is nothing for him to learn in Syracuse except how to be a better bunter if he concentrated on that. This guy showed last year and before he broke his ankle that he is a very valuable bench and platoon player.The Nats are in trouble if Bernadina is a starter next year unless it is in a platoon with Michael Morse.Bernadina should be here in DC in any capacity he can help this team.

You're missing the point. Some people in the Nats organization think Bernadina can be a star. If you thought you might have a star player were would you put him? On the bench? No, of course not. You'd want him to play, give him a few cups of coffee to get his desire up. He's a flawed player now, but maybe he could be a good player with more repetitions. Maybe something will 'click' in AAA and Bernadina will be a big time player. If the Nats brain trust thought he was pure bench material, Bernadina would have made this team.

Anonymous said… Ryan Zimmerman: .357/.486/.536, 1.022 OPS translates to a 181 OPS+. Injured and on the DL. Yeah that slacking Ryan Zimerman is the problem. Riiiight. April 28, 2011 6:51 PM __________________________________Zim's numbers are great while he is playing. Starting to remind me of Nick Johnson but Nick is a frail person. Zim is an issue of conditioning and very avoidable.

@ Gonats: Nick is a frail person? WTF? He broke his freaking leg on the field! This reminds you of a pulled muscle? You make it sound like the guy was sandbagging. Do you remember that collision? Frail?

Someone wrote: "Still would take Bernadina on my bench over Stairs."And that's the point. We don't want Bernadina up here so he can sit on a bench. Let him get consistent AAA at bats, day-in and day-out, and find out once and for all whether he's an everyday player in the big leagues.Anony — as for Nick Johnson's frail-ness — we're not talking about the broken leg. In 2004 he missed time at the beginning of the season because of a bad back, and missed over a month at the end because of a broken cheek bone. He missed most of 2008 for a torn tendon sheath (wrist). This year he's already on the 60-day DL for an inflamed tendon in his wrist.Fragile, unlucky, whatever . . . the bottom line is that in 10 years he's only once played more than 100 games two years in a row. And three times he's played in less than 80 (well, four, if you count the zero games he played in 2007)

Just a random thought regarding the Starting five – Livo & Marquis shouldn't have a pitch cap; They can stay on the mound until they tell Riggleman / McCatty they haven't got much left. Lannan & Gorzelanny have the experience to handle 100+ pitches in most situations. JZimm is the only SP who should be under a hard pitch limit (under 100). I think Riggleman has become too cautious with his starters, given some past overuse mistakes with young guys like Wood, and the recent injuries to JZimm & Strasburg. He needs to put more trust in the feedback he's getting on his starters (verbally from what McCatty sees & from the pitcher on the bench between innings) and what he's seeing on the field (are the hits squared-up and solid, or a collection of bleeders, dinks, and flukes).

@DC Wonk – 'zactly. Bernadina needs everyday play to prove his worth/value. Nix is a perfectly functional 4th OF/platoon LF with the big club at this point; Bernadina can get regular AB's & field play in Syracuse. On the example of 'Slick' Nick Johnson – Nick was/is the epitome of a fragile player, imo. He has a lousy recovery rate, constantly turning a 'day-to-day' injury into a 15-DL trip, and a 15-DL injury into a 60-DL (or more) sojourn. Yes, the injury from the collision with Kearns was horrific, but the track record was in place before that, imo.

Not sure if anyone can be bothered doing the maths, but it seems like this team, just like last years team, always gives back runs after they score. I am not usually a Riggleman basher, but if we do give runs back at a higher than average rate, then there is something wrong with the guys running the team.

So glad Storen did not listen to FP's advice. I thought Harris was waiting on a fastball to take a mighty swing. Anyways, glad to finally have taken one from the Mets. Planning to see TL face off against Marquis tomorrow. We will be see Sanchez, Cain, and Bumgarner too in this series. Do we have the worse luck or what at drawing good pitchers?

Well, Riggles didn't walk Willie Harris with 1st base open to pitch to the RH Hairston and it worked out.So Riggleman doesn't get second guessed tonight. Very big win. My only issue is the amount of RISP that were LOB.So hats off to IDesi for a well played game!

In game two of the Hagerstown twinbill Harper has a run-scoring single and a run-scoring double. He's up to 5 homers, 18 RBIs and he's hitting .323.In the words of that famed scout, Richard Pryor: "Superman's Baaad."

Rigglemen listened to us. Same situation as last night up by one Bay up followed by a bunch of lefties, and he brough in Storen, which of course we all called for last night.tGood job Riggs.Good job Desi too.Elton Jonb sing us some Livan.h

Well, I really enjoyed tonight's game. It was a very good win. I love watching LaRoach play first base, he is so silky smooth with his picks and fielding grounders. He sure can lead the pitchers well when they have to cover first. Desmond was great tonight, both in the field and at the plate. Livan was an artist on the pitching mound, and not bad at the plate either. The only thing that aggrevated me was Pudge making that error trying to pick up that bunted ball. And how great was it to see Drew Storen come in and get his fourth save. Go Nats!!!